First Life

The River Saga, Book 1

By: Nathan Hystad

Narrated by: Christopher Ryan Grant

Length: 14 hrs and 46 mins

Publisher's summary

A dangerous expedition. Extraterrestrial alliances. Unpredictable enemies.

Colton Beck has six months to live. He works for the Angor near Los Angeles, aware that any day could be his last.

The Angor arrived 20 years ago, resolved to help mankind survive, but not everyone believes their motives are honorable.

When the Angor offer humanity a colony world, Colton is determined to see another planet before his final breath. He’s been diagnosed with Xeno, a rare disorder that surfaced with the Angor’s arrival, but he won’t let this stop him.

With the help of his old friend Indie Hart, now the single most powerful human on Earth, he joins the Expedition to Dicore. They access the River, an alien technology that allows nearly instantaneous travel between worlds, and their universe is quickly expanded. What they find on Dicore is far from idyllic, and Colton struggles to navigate their new existence while coping with his impending death.

First Life is a gripping science fiction adventure tale from the best-selling author of The Event, Lost Contact, and Final Days.

©2021 Nathan Hystad (P)2021 Podium Audio

EXCEPTIONAL!!!!!!!

the narrator takes a chapter or two to get to where everything is coming out smooth or to where I got used to him but he did a great job very good with a different voices for each character and they all sounded great the story was intriguing and kept me pushing on not wanting to put the book down a thrilling story captivating from start to finish I had looked at this book several times considering it very very glad I finally did I will be following this story to the conclusion through hopefully many books loved it

Wow

Pros: very natural dialogue with a smooth, easily flowing writing style.
Well constructed mystery of the aliens itntent - a couple of clues here pointing to them being good guys, a couple of clues pointing to a more nefarious intent there. - still not entirely sure at the end.
Great vivid characters
Great pacing- like a snowball rolling down hill.

Cons: had a terrible time putting the thing down - kept me from getting enough sleep.

Good book, with a twist that actually got me.

Overall a good book. I enjoyed the story, and could relate to the characters. Part of the twist I predicted, but the other part I did not.. Definitely worth a credit!

Awesome

OMG!!! I can't wait for book 2, Second Chance!!!
Started this series not knowing what to expect, but now I'm all in, 100%!!!

Entertaining

Well written alien invasion science fiction tale. Just enough characterization, action and evolution to keep it interesting.

Hidden Gem

This is a great book. I can't wait for the next one! The story is interesting and the scope of the story is expensive.

Good first 3/4, poor ending

Overall I like the story, hence the four stars. It took a little while to get going, and I could predict some of the things that were going to happen, but it was good science-fiction. I like the main character a lot, and some of the supporting cast. I didn’t care for Indie too much and didn’t invest a lot of emotion in her. The story arc, continued to ramp up and without giving away any spoilers, the last couple of chapters were a little disappointing. It set up nicely for the next book in the series, but not enough in my opinion to make me want to continue. I’ll think about it, and if there are any weeks when I don’t find something else to read, maybe I’ll continue. As for the narrator, I don’t remember ever hearing him before, but he was perfect for this story and I will seek out other titles he has narrated.

Sleeper hit

I wasn’t too keen on this book in the first quarter. It wasn’t bad but just wasn’t getting me by the gills. Then things ramped up and it was a non-stop sprint to the finish. I’m looking forward to the next books in the series.

Odd choices with interesting twists.

I struggled with some of the choices in the story because they seemed highly unlikely or flat out wrong. my suspension of disbelief was strained a little too much.

However several times, the story took an interesting turn or added engaging details. this was later in the book as the beginning was a slog.

The narrator is a bit flat. Not a lot of difference between his narrating voice and the flat alien voice of the Angor.

No spoilers

Reviewing all 4 books in series—very good story overall. Fun & fast-paced except for 1st book which was excruciatingly slow, giving few clues to the shape of the story. It set up the series, but could have gotten to ‘the good stuff’ more quickly. Did a good job of character development often using flashbacks so got a m feel of who who each character was without the need to hear every detail of their life. The narrator was pretty good, but with some weird pauses as if he had not read ahead, so some of the story was oddly paced. Worth the credits and entertaining.